In 1871, the Nottinghamshire Guardian carried an article about St Ann’s Allotments and the joy of manure… “The gardens average 400 square yards, and one of the gardeners told me that he generally bought from 4 to 5 tons of manure each year!… All the crops grow, as it were, in dung; the roots find…
The frosts we have experienced during this month have been a concern, particularly for those of us with fruit trees. Hopefully, the blossom will survive long enough for the bees to begin their pollination task as the weather warms up. Fortunately, we appear to have suffered only ground frosts. In May 1900, fruit tree growers on St Ann’s Allotments were also concerned…
Although we hear constant references to climate change, we don’t always see those changes around us. As a lad during the late 1950’s the cold war between Russia and the West was at its height, so any severe weather patterns were satirically blamed on the Russians. I was too young to recognise seasonal changes in the weather and birds such as skylarks, lapwings and song thrushes were plentiful. I was…